Scare Tactics
by EllaoftheOpera
Summary: Pietro has used every trick in the book to try and scare Lia, but none of them have worked. In a last ditch attempt, he tricks her into playing a computer game called Five Nights at Freddy's, but his plan works a little too well. One-shot. No swearing or sexual content. Rated T for terrifying computer game. Seriously. This game is freaky.


**A/N: So I overheard my best friend talking about this game called Five Nights at Freddy's. I had no idea what it was, so I looked it up and found a video of someone playing it. I decided to go against my better judgment and watch the video. I regret that decision. A lot. So I wrote this one-shot as a sort of therapy to transfer my fear from myself to Lia. It worked. Sorry, Lia.**

Lia was in the kitchen filling a glass with grape juice when she heard it. Snickering. She sighed.

"Pietro, you know I can hear you, right?" she called out. "Come on out. You can't scare me."

Pietro poked his head out of the pantry. "How did you know it was me?" he asked.

"Who else would it be?" she answered.

Ever since Pietro found out how hard it was to scare Lia, he had made it his mission to do so. He had tried every trick in the book, from hiding in a closet and jumping out to creeping up behind her and shouting. Nothing seemed to work, though. With everything she'd gone through, she had nerves of steel when it came to petty scares.

Lia took her juice with her to her room. Pietro sighed as she walked out.

"Holy crap!" someone shouted from the other room.

Curious, Pietro followed the source of the noise to find an absolutely terrified Clint Barton in the living room sitting next to one Sam Wilson, who was doubled over laughing. Clint was staring, horrified, at Sam's phone, which he had thrown across the room.

"What the heck, dude?" he asked in a shrill voice. "You can't do that to a person with no warning!"

"You should have seen your face, man. I should have filmed that. It was too perfect," Sam replied, still laughing.

"What kind of sick, twisted person creates something like that?" Clint wondered out loud, the terror fading and being replaced with annoyance.

"Someone with a sick, twisted mind, my friend," Sam answered, his laughter finally dying down.

"What's going on?" Pietro asked.

Clint looked up at him. "If he asks you if you want to see a funny video, say no," he said seriously. "It's only funny for him."

"I was showing him a clip from this new game I got called Five Nights at Freddy's," Sam explained. "It's a horror game. You have to stay alive for five nights in a kids restaurant with robotic characters walking around that want to kill you. It's actually pretty fun."

"No, it's not," Clint interjected. "It's terrifying. The stupid things jump out at you with no warning and scare the living crap out of you. In what world is that considered fun?"

"Can I see?" Pietro asked.

"Sure man. Go ahead. The clip should still be pulled up on my phone," Sam said.

Clint just shook his head. "Don't say I didn't warn you," he told Pietro before vacating the room. That last thing he wanted was to watch that clip again.

Pietro picked up Sam's phone and pressed play. He watched as the person playing the game clicked through the security cameras around the restaurant to keep an eye on the characters. He noticed one of them was coming closer, but the person playing did not. When the person playing clicked off of the security cameras, a large stuffed duck character jumped on screen and screamed loudly.

Pietro jumped and cried out, but didn't scream. He smiled. "That is fun!" he said.

"Glad someone thinks so," Sam answered.

Seeing Clint's reaction to the game gave Pietro an idea. "Hey, Sam? I don't suppose I could borrow your computer for a bit?"

ooOOoo

Lia invited Peter over the next day. They went into the front room to talk but were instead met with a small crowd gathered around Sam's computer. Tony, Clint, and Sam were watching Pietro play it. Every now and then, one of them would jump or cry out.

"What's going on?" Lia asked.

Tony turned to her. "We're watching Lightning McQueen play this freaky game on Tweety Bird's computer."

"Will you stop calling me Tweety Bird?" Sam asked.

"Nope," Tony answered with a grin.

"What game is it?" Peter asked.

"It's called Five Nights at Freddy's," Clint answered, "and it's terrifying."

"Then why are you watching him play it?" Lia questioned.

"Because I have nothing better to do," he replied honestly.

"Do you want to try, Lia?" Pietro asked. "It's lots of fun."

She looked skeptical. "I don't know. Scary games aren't exactly my cup of tea. They tend to freak me out."

"Come on, Tesla. Give it a chance. It's not that scary. You might like it," Tony encouraged her.

She sighed. "I'm going to regret this, I just know it."

Pietro stood up off the couch and let Lia sit where he had been sitting. He handed her Sam's PC and gave her a brief tutorial on the controls.

"Just click here to check the security cameras. Keep an eye out for the robotic characters. If they look like they're coming closer then shut the door to the security office. But only shut it if you need to because the doors use a lot of battery. You have to survive until six am. You don't want to run out of battery before then."

"Okeydoke. Let's see," she muttered to herself. She began periodically checking the security cameras, keeping an eye on the characters.

"This isn't too hard," she said. "They're all in the same room."

Peter came and sat next to her on the couch. The rest of the group was watching her from behind.

She checked the camera again and did a double take.

There were only three characters in the room.

"Weren't there four of them in there?" she asked.

"Yeah," Pietro answered. "There are four characters. A bear, a fox, a rabbit, and a duck."

There's no duck," she stated, a hint of panic in her voice.

"You better find it before it gets you," Tony commented.

"Gets me?" Lia asked. "What do you mean?"

"If a character catches you they'll stuff you in an animatronic suit," Sam explained to her. "The problem is, the suit is already full of mechanical parts and crap. Let's just say not much of you will survive that process."

"There's the duck," Peter said, pointing the screen. The camera was trained on the party room. The duck animatronic was standing between the tables, staring directly at the camera.

"That's not creepy or anything," Lia stated sarcastically, checking the room with the others again. "Wait, now there's only two! The fox is gone!"

She frantically rechecked the cameras, trying to find the missing animatronic. She found it outside one of the security doors and shut it quickly. "Guys, this game is starting to freak me out," she said nervously. "I don't like it."

"Just finish this round, then. You don't have to play anymore after that," Pietro said, smiling to himself. His plan was working perfectly.

Lia was getting increasingly worried. She shut the other door as well, as a precaution. The fox was gone now, replaced with something that she assumed used to be a rabbit.

"Why are their eyes like that?" she asked. "They're like staring into my soul!"

"Your battery is getting low," Clint pointed out.

"What happens when the battery runs out?" Lia asked, cycling through the cameras again. She saw the fox animatronic staring directly at her on one of the cameras and shuddered involuntarily.

"I'm not sure," Sam answered. "I've only ever passed a level or gotten caught. I've never run out of battery before."

"Guys, seriously, I don't want to play this anymore!" she shrieked, losing sight of the duck yet again. The characters were moving rapidly. She was having a hard time keeping track. And wasn't there supposed to be a bear around here somewhere?

"It's okay, you've only got two more hours to go!" Tony said encouragingly.

"Yeah, two hours and fifteen percent battery!" she said, raising her voice.

"Open one of the doors back up. That will save battery power," Peter suggested.

"Heck no! If I open that door one of these homicidal nightmare creatures will come in here and get me!" Lia was well beyond freaked out now. She finally located the bear standing outside one of the doors. The lightbulb above him flickered periodically, making his demented face look even creepier.

Clint watched the battery level slowly tick down to five. "Guys…"

"What kind of parent would take their kid to this place?" Lia asked in a shaky voice.

"Lia," Clint said in a serious voice, finally getting her attention.

"What!?" she shrieked, glancing over at him momentarily.

He pointed to the screen just as the battery hit zero.

The lights in the security office flickered and went out.

Nobody said anything.

The doors reopened due to lack of electricity keeping them closed. The glowing, demonic head of Freddy Fazbear could be seen staring at them through the doorway, a horrific looking grin on his face.

Lia started panicking. She grabbed Peter's arm. "Peter, Peter, Peter-"

"Breathe, Lia. It's just a game," he reminded her. "It's not real."

Suddenly, Freddy's face disappeared. The screen went black.

"See?" Peter said. "That wasn't so bad."

"Oh," she said, letting go of his arm.

 **"BRAAAAAAAGGGHHHHH!"**

Freddy Fazbear jumped through the black screen and screamed bloody murder at her.

Lia screamed back, instinctively tossing the PC at Pietro and scrambling toward Peter, who gathered her in a hug. He glared at the rest of the group, all of which had started to laugh.

"Got you!" Pietro cried triumphantly. "I finally scared you!"

Lia didn't respond. Her breathing was shallow, her eyes wide. She buried her face in Peter's shirt.

"Guys, that wasn't very nice," Peter pointed out. "You really freaked her out. You know she doesn't like this kind of stuff." He stroked her hair softly, trying to calm her down.

Bucky strode briskly into the room. "Is everything okay? I heard screaming."

"Nothing's wrong, Frosty," Tony said, his laughter reducing down to a chuckle. "We were just watching Tesla play one of Big Bird's new computer games."

"Come on, man. That's worse than Tweety Bird!" Sam complained.

Bucky glanced at Lia, who had yet to let go of Peter.

"They tricked her into playing Five Nights at Freddy's," Peter explained. "The main character jumped out at her when she wasn't expecting it and it really freaked her out."

Bucky's eyes narrowed into slits. He glared at the small group. They immediately sobered.

"Who's idea was this?" he asked, trying hard to keep his cool.

Sam, Tony, Clint, and Peter each pointed a finger at Pietro. He grinned sheepishly.

Bucky sighed. "What made you think that tricking her into playing a scary computer game would be a good idea?"

"I wanted to scare her. Normally, she's very hard to scare. I thought the computer game would work, and it did. It just worked a little too well," Pietro admitted, scratching his head.

Bucky rubbed the bridge of his nose with his fingers, his other hand resting on his hip. He pointed at Lia. "Can you see what went wrong here?"

"Yeah," Pietro said, sobering.

"Are you going to do this again?" he questioned.

"Probably," he answered honestly.

Bucky groaned. "At least apologize, Pietro."

Pietro turned to Lia. "Sorry, Lia."

Bucky addressed the group. "Have you all learned your lesson?" he asked frustratedly.

"Yes," they all murmured.

"Good. Now pick up Sam's computer and go play that game someplace else." He walked past them into the kitchen, ruffling Lia's hair as he went by. "I work with a bunch of children…" he muttered under his breath.

Silently, Pietro picked up Sam's PC and walked out of the room. The other three followed behind him, leaving Peter and Lia alone on the couch.

Peter continued to stroke Lia's hair. "They're gone now, Lia. You're safe."

She lifted her head a little bit. Seeing that the room was indeed empty, she raised her head all the way. She maneuvered herself into a more comfortable position, tucked into Peter's side. He put his arm around her.

"You okay?" he asked.

"Yeah. I'm okay. For now. That stupid game is gonna haunt my dreams tonight." She shuddered.

"Why did you immediately come over to me?" he asked curiously.

"Cause I feel safer when I'm with you," she told him.

He smiled at her.

"Now hand me the remote," she requested. "I need to watch a Disney movie or something."

He laughed and handed her the remote. "As you wish, your Highness. What shall we watch?" he teased.

"You may pick, my loyal servant," she replied with a grin, playing along. "But we will not, under any circumstances, be watching Brother Bear."

"Agreed."


End file.
